A Pretty Lonely Place Without You
by emmylouuwho
Summary: 4.05 Connor thinks Abby's gone, flashes back to the last time that happened. SPOILERS for 4.05 and 2.04


**Author's Note: This has been floating around in one of my notebooks for a while, so I finally typed it up.**

**As always, I own nothing but a love for the show (and Connor & Abby), two crazy dogs, and excellent cooking abilities (was eating homemade quesadilla as i wrote this).**

Connor was still shaken from seeing the woman and her son killed by the creature as he put the comm. earpiece back in his ear. But his main concern at the moment was for Abby. _She should be here by now._

"Jess? Jess, can you hear me?"

"Connor," Jess' anxious voice came over the comm. "Are you OK?"

"I'm fine," he replied. "For now. Where's Abby?"

"Connor, she should be standing right in front of you."

Connor kept his eye on the worm creature as he argued with the field coordinator. "Trust me, I think I know what's right in front of me." _A man-eating worm with legs._

Jess sounded confused as she replied, "The signal's right there."

"What?" _No. That's not right. Can't be._ "But I mean..."

The creature was in front of him, getting nearer all the time. The creature that had taken Abby away from him.

"Abby!" He lashed out wildly at the creature with a piece of driftwood.

* * *

><p>"<em>And now the girl's dead."<em>

_Connor turned angrily toward Lester, his face contorted with anguish._

"_She's not dead. She's not dead! We could just go out there and we can find her. All we need to do is get back in the boats and __**do something!**__ Why is nobody doing anything?"_

* * *

><p>Connor heard a gunshot come from somewhere behind the creature.<p>

"What the-?"

"Get away from him!" _Abby. That's Abby's voice. But she's gone._

Then he looked up and saw her. "Abby, you're alive!"

"Yep, last time I checked."

* * *

><p><em>He saw her across the room, soaking wet with her mascara running in streaks down her face. She was alive. But a few feet away, the creature who had taken her roared. And the anomaly was just behind it. Connor ran towards her as fast as he could.<em>

_He saw her face crumple and heard her shouted, "NO!" He didn't understand. Then the world around him tilted and spun as he was knocked off his feet into the water._

* * *

><p>Abby gave a relieved sigh as the anomaly closed behind the creatures. "That was, uh, more eventful than I imagined." She smiled at him, but he didn't react. He just stared, overwhelmed by the realization that he hadn't lost her after all. "Connor?"<p>

"I thought you, I thought you'd been eaten, I..." He trailed off, swallowing around the lump in his throat.

"Are you alright?" Abby asked, her eyes filled with concern. _She's worried about me? She just got eaten! Or almost eaten... or something._

"Yep." He scrubbed his hands over his face to erase the tears in his eyes. "Yeah, it's just, it's good to, um..." He paused, taking a shaky breath. "For a minute there I thought you were gone. It'd be a pretty lonely place here without you."

* * *

><p><em>His arm ached with the strain, but he wasn't about to let go. To let her go. He couldn't.<em>

"_I'm pulling you over Connor. Just leave me."_

"_No," he yelled down at her. "I'm not letting you go. I've lost you once, Abby. I'm not losing you again, OK?" His grip on her hand tightened. "Come on, we can do this."_

"_There's no point in us both dying. Just let me go." Abby's voice shook, and her next words were hardly more than a whisper. "Let me go."_

_Connor would never let her go. Didn't she know that? "I can't."_

"_Please," she whispered tearfully._

"_I love you!" The words just popped out, as natural as anything. And it was true. "I am not, I'm not leaving you here."_

* * *

><p>"Well, I'm here."<p>

"Yes. You are." Connor put his hands on her shoulders, squeezing them slightly, almost to make sure she was real. But that wasn't enough. He grabbed her face and kissed her.

"Please don't do that to me again," he said emphatically when they broke apart.

Abby smiled. "I'll try my best."


End file.
